Silent Bang
by TheAwkwardMe
Summary: The world is ending in blankness and silence but she's all pride and shine and stardust and always has been, so she'll be sure to go out with one hell of a bang. "Must you fix you hair in the middle of a goddamn apocalypse? And why the fucking whip?" "The entire human race is probably gonna die in these shitty caves, so I might as well have some fucking fun with it, yeah?"-SasuIno


** Chapter 1: Laughing Little Piggy and the Beginning of the End **

The war's grand finale is a soundless explosion of black; a mushroom cloud of something malevolent and dark that rises high up above the clouds and sinks down to the earth at the speed of sound. It spreads like some super plague from a mad scientist's nightmare, and the gray-blue sky is lost to it. The land goes _black, black, black_ and the air fills with lead-heavy poison. It _rots_ people- eyes to melted jelly, skin to stringy charcoal- and they die with coal tongues and frozen screams. Their bodies become black shells of ash speckled with open welts of red festering tissue, stuck still like marble statues.

Every soldier on the battle field is sent one final command: **_Run_**. And they do- or at least, those that are able to do. They run east and west, to anywhere and everywhere as long as it's away from the dark death nipping at their heels.

"Shit, shit! My leg! My leg! Ah! Ahhh! It- its crumbling!"

"Mother?! _Mother?!_ Ahhhh! Help! Help me, come for me please, it _hurts_!"

"The mountain, the fucking mountain is is falling! It's crushing all those people!"

"The injured! Save the injured! The med bays are about to be swallowed!"

"Doctor! Doctor! Someone call a doctor, my husband he- he's _dying_!"

"Like hell! It's too late! Every man for themselves now!"

"P-please! I'm bleeding! Ayumi, you love me, right?! W-wait! Don't go! Help me!"

"I am sorry! I am _so, so_ sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"Gahhh! Everybody fucking run!"

Earth shaking screams and silently approaching death; there is no word for this besides _apocalypse_.

Lost among the many, Ino is drained and used and _exhausted_. She can barely breathe with all this ash in her lungs and on her pale cream skin, can barely see with the tears that, for some reason her mind is too tired remember, come drip, drip, dropping down from her ice blue eyes.

Her fellow shinobi are screaming in desperate, horrified tones that might just be loud enough to echo all across the whole world- she finds that quite funny, actually, as the approaching cloud of death behind her had barely made a sound. The Cloud is so close she feels its tangy poison flavor in in her mouth. She should probably be running by now- but would it really be worth it?

Her father is dead. Choji and Sakura have surely been swallowed. She _saw_ it with her own damn eyes and- oh, _that_ was what the tears were for. Shikamaru is nowhere to be seen. No matter how far she stretches her senses she can't feel any of her friends outside of the black cloud. Would there still be a point to surviving without them? Ino doesn't think there would be.

She runs anyways. Her sandals make scritch, scratch sounds on the dry, dry ground- funny how dry it is, when she's seen nothing but blood for the last who knows how long- and Ino moves not because she wants to survive, but because her father didn't raise a quitter. Neither bitchy Sakura nor lazy-ass Shikamaru would have never given up in a place like this so there is no chance in hell Yamanaka Ino will.

She laughs- eyes drying now- as she bounds over corpse after corpse. She laughs partly because it so fucking hilarious how her pride ambles its way to the surface now of all times, but mostly because the world is literally crumbling apart around her and most everyone she loves is dead so why give a flying fuck anymore. Besides, they say laughter is the best medicine, and since her lungs are on fire and her legs seem to think they're being stabbed by a thousand needles, Ino needs all the medicine she can get.

Her silver blond hair is banner streaming behind her; a last splash of color for the desperate, begging shinobi- all of whom she leaves in her wake to literally bite dust. She laughs just at that too; because she with the masses preached unity and self sacrifice and honor among ninja, but now, with death at their heels, nobody bothers to look back and the irony is just painfully delicious. Running, she wonders about how many people behind her were people she talked with and fought with and laughed with and about how her swishing pale hair will be the last thing they see.

"Ino-San...! Help...! Help me _please_! Hurry...! _Hurry_ before that- that thing gets here!"

It is a faint, soft cry- but the tone and timber are terribly familiar. Only an arms reach behind her is Rock Lee; left eye swollen shut, left leg cracked into bone exposing zig-zags like a plastic child's toy whose name she just can't seem to recall. Suprisingly to herself, Ino stops and stares with blank blue eyes, blinking again and again. Suprisingly to Lee- or rather it would be if he wasn't bleeding out and could actually think straight- she doesn't immediately rush right to his side to help him get away.

"I-ino... San... Hurry! The Cloud is coming! Please! I- I do not wish to die on this battlefield!"

There's no longer any cheer or strength or youth in his voice and strangely it reminds her of butterflies being crushed, which reminds her of when Gaara crushed Lee's right limbs, which makes her want to giggle some more because of the awful timing her brain chose to be nostalgic.

"Ino-san! Ino-san! The Cloud, the Cloud!"

Oh, whoops. Now just when did that get so close? The Cloud is now only a few stone throws away- shit, she really should be running now. So without a word she turns away, gathers up all the chakra she can, pumps every single bit of it into her barely standing legs, and sprints like a woman possessed.

"Ino-san! Ino-san, please!"

Then she laughs, partly because his desperate plea sounds like a line from one of those shitty dramatic romance movies her team would watch make fun of for hours on end, but mostly because she's in the middle of an apocalypse and she'll probably die within the hour so she might as well have a good chuckle-fit before she goes.

So Ino runs and laughs and laughs and runs till she till her legs give out.

* * *

**Word Count:** 1,090

**Author's Note**: Hella long since I posted anything, it has been. Feels nice to get this annoyingly persistent plot bunny out of the way. Unfortunately, he has friends and they won't leave me alone. Please send me some reviews feels free to tell me it's pure shit, because I already know honey, I really do. Have a good one!

**Disclaimer:** I own only my made up plot and any non-canon elements I add to it. Everything else belongs to Kishimoto, so don't sue me.


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